“Progress Studies” And Appreciating How Good We Have It Today
Nov 1 · 7 min read
I had a really great phone conversation the other day with the guy who runs Roots of Progress. It’s a blog that has joined the increasingly loud debate about whether there should be a discipline called “Progress Studies” that was kicked off in The Atlantic this past summer.
I won’t dive into all the details of what proponents of Progress Studies are calling for — some of it seems to be stuff that has already been taken up by other disciplines, like how civilizations started and what institutions and incentives allow them to…

